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Monday, November 13, 2017

The holidays are fast approaching! Do you have someone on your list? A family member, a teen, a coworker, a secret santa party? An athlete, the guy in your life? We have something for everyone on your list. Perfect stocking stuffer gifts, the 8 days of hanukkah gifts, you name it I'm sure we have it. Natural skincare, no harmful chemicals, and professional grade makeup at affordable prices. Effective and affordable you've gotta love it.

It has been busy, hectic and crazy with three boys, school, sports, home, business, you know that little thing called..... life.

Well, a lot has changed in a few months. Moving into our "old, but new" home and starting a business. I've gone back to work after being a stay-at-home mom for the past decade or so. Well, I'm still a stay-at-home mom - turned mom-preneur. I've started selling an all natural, chemical free skincare line and professional grade makeup with the company LimeLight by Alcone. What an amazing company, with a CEO with a heart of gold (Michele Gay), and truly amazing products. This has been life changing for me and my skin.

Did you know that it only takes one minute for toxins to enter into your blood stream once applied to your skin? One minute! That might make you pause and think about what you're putting on your face, your body, your skin.

I've been cognizant of using natural products for most of my life. My father was a general surgeon, a doctor. He didn't like us wearing any makeup or perfumes. He thought it best to be natural and I believed him.

It wasn't until my father got sick when I was in my 20s that I really started to be more aware of things in our environment. I remember him talking about toxins in our environment (this was back in the early 1990s!). He truly believed that there were things in our environment making people sick. Toxins getting into our blood stream, toxins that we were breathing in, drinking, touching, coming into contact with that was causing an up tick in cancer rates. My dad was a surgeon. His philosophy was to go in and fix what was wrong and then heal. It was on Thanksgiving that I remember us all together as a family, and my dad had a cut on his arm that wasn't healing. He thought it strange, but in his quiet way, didn't elaborate or talk about it with us. Hind sight is always 20/20. Had we known on Thanksgiving that he was already sick, he could have gotten help sooner. It wasn't until the Spring the following year that his symptoms increased and it turned out that he had Acute Mylegenous Leukemia. His chances of survival were 30%. He sought immediate care with chemotherapy, but it wasn't enough. He passed away in July of that year at the young age of 53.

THIS. This is why I am so fortunate to have found LimeLight by Alcone's skincare line. I have tried other all natural skincare lines. Many of which made me break out. LimeLight's skincare line has worked well with my skin and is actually improving it. I have fine lines and wrinkles, dark undereye circles, hyper pigmentation (dark spots) from sun damage and some melasma from having babies (I have 3 boys). This skincare line is effective. It works. My undereye circles are diminishing. My hyper pigmentation spots are lightening. My fine lines are decreasing. I have acne scarring and will see if there are any improvements over time with those. Regardless, I am so incredibly happy to have found something that I believe in. That I truly love and that works and that is all natural - free from harmful chemicals! This regimen, below, works for my combination skin. There is skincare that can work for you too.

LimeLight by Alcone is a branch of the mother company, Alcone, which has been around for over 60 years! They provide professional grade makeup to makeup artists in the movie industry, broadway, celebrities, news media and now it is available to everyone.

Michele Gay, our CEO, decided to take the best of the best, tricks of the trade products from Alcone and bring it to the direct selling market so that every single person could feel amazing everyday. She wanted it in the hands of everyone. Something she did was create the all natural skincare line (free from harmful chemicals) to go along with the professional grade makeup offerings. She also believed that toxins in our lotions are entering into our bloodstream. So this was very important to her - and part of her vision, to bring not only bring professional grade makeup to everyone, but also all natural, chemical free skincare.

So what about our skincare? Simply. It's amazing. There's something for all skin types from anti aging to acne prone, dry to oily, combination or sensitive skin. There's also a men's skincare line.

Dream Clean (helps improve problematic skin): This amazing cleanser gently foams as a result of its natural-foaming fruit extract, Soapberry. This ingredient also combats acne-causing bacteria and inhibits melanin production (reducing age spots and sun damage).

Must Dew (oil): Calming face oil that restores, refreshes and protects skin cells. Can used as your only moisturizer or as an additional moisturizing layer.

One Drop Wonder: Full of antioxidants, rich in Omega-6, and UV protective helps repair damaged and aged skin cells and helps heal many common skin issues, including rosacea. It reverses damage to your skin, restores moisture and leaves a healthy glow.

Eye Aspire: A naturally derived serum with highly-effective ingredients to reverse the signs of aging around the eye area. Reduces fine lines and puffiness, eliminate age spots, and lighten dark undereye circles. Used consistently over time, the effects are visibly dramatic.

I'm happy to place an order for you or you can order directly off of my website.

I'm happy to field any questions as well!

Excited to be sharing this with you.

***This is revolutionary. All natural, effective, AND affordable.***

PLUS: We have just partnered with L'Occitane! The french billion dollar company! That is saying a lot. We will be expanding globally so LimeLight by Alcone can come to you!! We will be starting with Canada in early 2018. Then branching out to Brazil, then Europe and Asia. Be in the know! You're going to want to try this and you will fall in love with the all natural skincare and professional grade makeup! xoxo, Rosa

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

We have finally moved into our new home and the dust, literally, has nearly settled. My office space is not quite as neat and organized as I would like it, but I am so excited and inspired to get started on my 16 year old son's scrapbook!

I have two other kids whose scrapbooks are pretty bare. I'm hoping the systems I have set up many years ago will be helpful now!

I had started by ASSESSING what I had and what I've done over the years. I realized I had a few albums that were partially done. LOTS of loose photos, digital photos, photos on cd/dvd, and negatives.

Next, I started GATHERING all of my photos, papers, art, memorabilia - basically everything I had from their school years. I have been doing this through the years. I started out compiling everything into filing bins with file folders labeled by age and then by school year (birth, 1, 2, 3, preschool, kindergarten, grade 1, etc). The file bins were similar to these I found at Staples.

Now that we've moved into our new home I have a smaller office/creative space. I have set up a temporary desk until I decide what I will do and bought two commercial size filing cabinets, that are acting as temporary desk supports. I chose these Staples filing cabinets because they are heavier duty and much deeper than the others I had found. I have three kids and have designated a drawer for each of them and this is where I now hold all of their school stuff. It's easy to file things away now that I have the drawers and files in place.

I have already collected and sorted all of their stuff because I had been doing it all along as their items came in. If you haven't sorted the school stuff you will want to do that per child. I pulled out all of their stuff and organized it by year and/or teacher. I used stickies and wrote the grade/year/teacher's name on it and sorted everything into piles. Once sorted, I placed everything into file folders as "holders" until I could scrapbook them. I didn't make any decisions as to what to keep or toss. At that moment, I wanted to just sort and organize. (Batch process!)

This is where I am now. The next step will be to DECIDE WHAT I WANT TO KEEP OR WHAT THE KIDS WANT TO KEEP. For items that are too big I will photograph and include that in their album. For other papers and artwork I will either cut it down to size or scan it and use in the Project Life App to create a page. I may also make digital pages using photoshop depending on the items.

I currently have two different scanners. One is the Fujitsu Scansnap ix500. It's fast and efficient. It can scan a lot of pages at once. You can go into the settings and have it save as a jpeg or pdf. You can set the image quality to automatic resolution or as high as 600 dpi for color/grey scanning or 1200 dpi for black and white scanning. You can choose to scan in color, grey, black and white or automatic color detection. Duplex (double-sided) or simplex (single-sided). AND it can be programmed to be used wirelessly! It's a little pricey, but worth the money. ($495.99 at Staples, but you may be able to find it for less elsewhere).

I also have the Epson Perfection V750 Pro. I've had this one for many years. I don't use it quite as often, but find it is great for scanning older prints. It can scan up to 6400 optical resolution and can automatically remove dust and surface defects from your photos and can even remove scratches from old black and white photos. It is also great for batch scanning negatives, slides, and more. I haven't used it to its capacity, but it has been great for scanning more fragile or bulkier items.

My next step is going to be to go through, sort, scan, and photograph starting with preschool.

So I've been memory keeping and scrapbooking for most of my life. Becky Higgins has revolutionized scrapbooking/memory keeping in a way that makes it doable and super easy to document your story, your way. You don't need a lot of materials to get started. Everything they do is centered around cultivating a good life and recording it. That’s why they created Project Life® — the super simple pocket scrapbooking system that makes it ridiculously easy to document your story! Project Life is a memory-keeping life saver. It's also known as pocket scrapbooking/memorykeeping. Project Life® is an ultra-simple, über-stylish solution for getting your photos off your phone and computer, out of boxes, and into albums. Gone are the days of cutting, pasting, buying oodles of supplies, and spending hours on an album. Or even hours on just one page.

Enter Project Life. Simply choose a Project Life Album, select a Core Kit full of artfully-designed cards, and slip them into their Photo Pocket Pages along with your treasured photos and you’re done! By spending less time on your albums, you’ll have more time to rearrange your sock drawer, give Fido a bath, or clean your house. Well, you get the idea.

If you've been on the fence or think that scrapbooking is not for you... think again. It could't be any easier.

If you'd rather not deal with any paper at all, there is a digital version that you can use on your computer using photoshop elements or photoshop. You will need to know the basics of adding photos into photoshop (but this is a very small learning curve).

Or even easier, you can download the project life app from iTunes and memory keep in the palm of your hand.